You're Fired: Categories of Terminations

There are two main categories of employment terminations. Every termination falls into one of the two.

Voluntary Termination - Employee Initiated

Resignation: Employee leaves their current job for their own reason such as another job to stay at home.

Job Abandonment: Employee ceases to report to work for any reason. Usually their is no communication to the company from the employee. Most common time period allowed by the company is three consecutive scheduled work days.


Involuntary Termination - Company Initiated

Termination for Cause
  -Unsatisfactory Work Performance: Employee's work performance is below acceptable.
  -Unacceptable Behavior: Employee conducts unacceptable behavior at work. Examples
   are theft of company property, intoxication at work...the list goes on.

Reduction-in-Force [Layoff]: The size of the workforce is reduced and the employee's job is eliminated.

Site Closure: Closure of a company or major unit of a company eliminates jobs. This is a subset of a RIF but certain Federal and State laws come into effect in these cases.

There are various mandatory requirements such as final paycheck issuance and discrimination avoidance also involved with most terminations.

Professional Human Resources support is essential and well worth the cost compared to losing a lawsuit or claim.

Lance